Broadening identities for diverse youth in STEM through socioenvironmental problem solving

该项目将推动学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划的努力，以更好地了解和促进实践，通过参与现场实践、基于实验室/项目的创业任务和指导经验，提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学(STEM)领域追求职业生涯的动机和能力。该项目在北卡罗来纳大学为不同的中学青年及其教师解决STEM途径、机会和身份差距。项目活动将科学、工程和计算机结合起来，以解决多方面的社会环境问题，具有局部和全球意义，并有助于个人有意义和真实的STEM学科参与。我们的假设是，这种综合方法将加强青年与STEM相关的身份认同，拓宽他们STEM的学术和职业道路，为有意义的STEM整合提供一个模式，并培养教师的学习。该项目将从北卡罗来纳州的两个农村学区(伦道夫县学区和罗金汉县学区)招收60名中学生。这些学区将与三所中学合作，为不同的社会经济弱势学生群体提供服务。该项目包括一个研究部分，研究青年与STEM相关的身份，这将：(1)确定触发和维持STEM身份工作的方案的特征；(2)通过确定非正式STEM教育与身份相关的长期结果，填补文献中的持久空白；以及(3)提供一个更新的、经过测试的纪律身份模型。该项目致力于改善北卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特的STEM学习基础设施，以便历史上被剥夺了丰富STEM教育的年轻人能够进入并保持在通向STEM相关个人从属关系、学业成功和职业机会的道路上。项目目标是：(1)创建、制定和完善一种教学模式，通过科学、工程和计算让有社会环境问题的中学生参与进来；(2)研究该模式在触发和维持年轻人与STEM相关的身份和途径方面的有效性；(3)测试更新的学科认同模式；(4)对教师STEM专业学习方案的有效性进行研究。该项目包括以下主要干预战略：(A)为期两周的住宅夏季学院(SI)，重点是通过科学、工程和计算机检查获得清洁水的问题。近乎同行的导师、STEM专业人员、STEM领域的本科生和毕业生，以及STEM职业顾问为SI做出贡献。参与者包括来自伙伴学校的60名青年和6名教师；(B)星期六学院侧重于将工程设计和计算结合在一起的环境问题。评价计划包括全面的形成性(过程)和总结性(结果)部分。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences.This project at the University of North Carolina addresses STEM access, opportunity, and identity gaps for diverse middle school youth and their teachers. The project activities integrate science, engineering, and computing to address socio-environmental problems that are multifaceted, have local and global significance, and lend themselves to personally meaningful and authentic disciplinary STEM engagement. The hypothesis is that this integrated approach will strengthen youth's STEM-linked identities, broaden their STEM academic and career pathways, provide a model for meaningful STEM integration, and nurture teachers' learning. The project will recruit 60 middle school students from two rural school districts in North Carolina (Randolph County School district and Rockingham County School district). These districts will partner with three middle schools that serve diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged student populations. The project includes a research component to study youths' STEM-linked identities, which will: (1) identify features of the program that trigger and sustain STEM identity work; (2) fill an enduring gap in the literature by identifying long-term, identity-related outcomes of informal STEM education; and (3) provide an updated, tested model of disciplinary identity. This project contributes to a long-term goal to improve the STEM learning infrastructure in the North Carolina Piedmont so youths who have historically been denied an enriching STEM education can access and remain on pathways that lead to STEM-related personal affiliation, academic success, and career opportunities.The project objectives are: (1) create, enact, and refine a pedagogical model that engages middle school youth with socioenvironmental problems through science, engineering, and computing; (2) study the effectiveness of the model in triggering and sustaining youth's STEM-linked identities and pathways; (3) test an updated model of disciplinary identity; (4) study the effectiveness of the program for teachers' STEM professional learning. The project includes the following primary intervention strategies: (a) a two-week residential Summer Institute (SI) focuses on the problem of access to clean water, examined through science, engineering, and computing. Near-peer mentors, STEM professionals, undergraduates and graduates in STEM fields, and a STEM career counselor contribute to the SI. Participants include 60 youth and six teachers from partner schools; (b) Saturday Academies (SAs) focus on environmental problems integrating engineering design and computing. The evaluation plan includes comprehensive formative (process) and summative (outcome) components.